Even though I already had gotten the Bimaa sweater last year, I caved and bought it again (with more sizes and apparently the pattern was perfected) during the friday fiver from sew mama sew a couple weeks ago. So glad I did! I really do love this pattern and I love how I can use it for both kids with the different neckline options.

This fabric was bought at Joanne’s and I swear it was SO WEIRD TO WORK WITH. When I bought it, I didn’t really realize that the stripes were vertical. When I was laying it out to cut it I was so confused. The stripes were vertical and I was a little upset about having a vertical striped sweater for Millie… but then I realized the grain line was the stretchiest… what? So I decided to just cut it horizontally. It took some creativity on my part to get this squeaked into 1 yard that way, but I persevered! I sewed up the size 5 on this 5 year old girl, making zero alterations. I just love how fitted this little sweater is. I will also add, I sewed up the 5 last year too and even though my other version had way slippier fabric, I think this really was drafted better.

As weird as it was, this really is a neat knit, lots of texture and I like it. Last week Millie declared that the weather was colder than she had EVER felt it. That is when I decided to sew this up for her, to be nice and cozy for the bitter cold weather. You know, the bitter cold 29 degree temps that we have here. Trust me. I am from a colder climate, I am aware of how fortunate we are to have lows in the 20’s. These are the season’s highs for lots of people. However, we live in Texas and weather can be fickle. It was in the 70’s today, but poor Millie has a fever and so she was FREEZING. Other than that she seemed to be happy and feeling well, so I took the opportunity of her being home from school to take some photos :) Good thing I had sewn her a sweater! She was more than happy to model this today :)

I tried to get her to give me little genuine smiles when taking pictures. I asked her to imagine that I had just given her a puppy or a pony to get some surprised smiles.. But then I was like “or would you rather just have a lollipop?” She said “A LOLLIPOP!!” and proceeded to pretend to shove one in her mouth. Thank goodness for easy things making my little love happy! No furry lives needed to make my little angel ecstatic, haha!

I think I’ll be sewing some more of these for both kids this winter.. They are so fast and easy! Quinny still fits in his old one too so that is awesome! Now I just need to find a Bimaa for grown ups :)